It Began with Potatoes

Brassica oleracea. Kale, broccoli, cauliflower, collard greens… they all pay homage to their ancestor Brassica oleracea. [1] Cultivated broadly throughout history, from the plains of Mesopotamia, to the fertile expanses of the Nile, the humble cabbage has stolen the hearts of travelers through history. The root, Oleracea, ties together her children, all the plentiful cultivars of Brassica oleracea. You might […]

Hey all! Just a quick update. I just wanted to write a bit today and put something out on the blog for y’all. I’ve recently read the New Yorker article: “Questions for Me About Dying” by Cory Taylor that you can read here. [1] Author of Me and Mr. Booker, My Beautiful Enemy, and Dying: A Memoir, her writing combines […]

Where did the love go? More and more often, as I find myself caught up in the race that pre-meds succumb to, I have found myself asking the question: Where did the love go? When I mean the love, I don’t mean an emotional outpour, I mean the support in the little things in life. […]

Today is the day I claim the name: “Mr. Bacteria”. Today is also the day that marks the beginning of this series. I want it to be fun and exciting and my goal is to share the excitement and disappointments that come along with studying these inscrutable microorganisms. I googled the name “Mr. Bacteria” and […]

By: Joseph Maa Date: 5/25/2017 Why can’t researchers do research and have professors just teach? It’s a natural question that exists at all research institutions, with Berkeley as no exception. It’s a problem that frustrates both students and professors to no end: researchers are increasingly subjected to higher and higher demands on their time, while students […]

Hi everyone Joseph here, Today I wanted to address the heroin epidemic after the recent events in Ohio addressing the morality of reducing dispatch to chronic heroin overdose users, as well as look at a few mechanisms of action by which heroin acts on the body. Heroin’s rising abuse in the US is my impetus […]

By: Joseph Maa Date: 6/10/2017 Today sucks. No two ways about it. For one, my second Reddit post ever got deleted. It was a breakdown of Bertrand Russell’s first chapter of: The Problems of Philosophy. Alas, I’ll never get to hear commentary on my analysis. My feeble attempts to write a critical philosophy analysis will never […]